Scientists have discovered a marine microbe-derived antibiotic that has the ability to kill the deadly Anthrax bacterium Bacillus anthracis and other pathogens such as the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

Prof William Fenical with colleagues from the University of California San Diegos Scripps Institution of Oceanography first collected Streptomyces sp. - a marine microorganism that produces the compound – in 2012 from sediments close to shore off Santa Barbara, California.

Using an analytical technique known as spectroscopy, they then deciphered the unusual structure of a molecule isolated from Streptomyces sp. Initial testing of the compound, which they named Anthracimycin, revealed its potency as a killer of anthrax and the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

The finding is a basic research discovery, which could lead to testing and development, and eventually a drug.

The discovery of truly new antibiotic compounds is quite rare. This discovery adds to many previous discoveries that show that marine bacteria are genetically and chemically unique.

The discovery provides the latest evidence that the oceans, and many of its unexplored regions, represent a vast resource for new materials that could one day treat a variety of diseases and illnesses, Prof Fenical concluded.

I just made a new keyword, i.e. newantibiotic. What's really interesting here is that this antibiotic came from bacteria, IMHO. Our usual experience is to discover these drugs in fungi. Penicillin was discovered accidentally in an old mold culture by Alexander Fleming.

“What’s really interesting here is that this antibiotic came from bacteria...”

It’s a seminal breakthrough that gives us a whole new way of looking at antibiotic chemistry. Real Nobel Prize stuff, if that still means anything. We get to go back and search other coastal areas for variations of this molecule.

“Penicillin was discovered accidentally in an old mold culture by Alexander Fleming.”

If I remember the story, he became interested in a blue mold growing on some orange peels left out near a window.

(and if that isn’t the story, it should be :)

8
posted on 08/04/2013 2:33:51 PM PDT
by Owl558
(Those who remember George Santayana are doomed to repeat him)

Back in August 2009 I had not been near a hospital in about a decade. I caught a case of MRSA in my armpit and ended up at Dewitt Army Hospital in serious condition for four days.

The doctors told me MRSA is now everywhere and they think close to 50% of the population have it on their bodies. It just takes the right conditions, including the host being ill and their defenses being down for the infection to attack.

A relative of mine was on a hike ...slipped on some rocks and scraped his shin up pretty good. He almost lost that leg to MRSA ... they cleaned it out to the bone ... if it had been in the bone, bye-bye leg. It took months to heal and required a wound specialist’s care.

Sediments from an environment that has continuous oil seeps from the sea floor that put oil tar on the beach sands. This is awful. In this case we must plug the oil seeps, vacuum up all the sediments, store them safely underground forever and walk away from this discovery, lest the oil companies possibly get favorable reflected publicity from such a discovery. Yes, people will die, but oil companies getting favorable reflected publicity from such a discovery is worse. You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. (/liberal)

Whats really interesting here is that this antibiotic came from bacteria...

Streptomycin the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis was first isolated from the actinobacterium Streptomyces griseus on October 19, 1943, by Albert Schatz, a graduate student, in the laboratory of Selman Abraham Waksman at Rutgers University.

25
posted on 08/04/2013 4:15:03 PM PDT
by Hiddigeigei
("Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish," said Dionysus - Euripides)

I was lucky. It started like a pimple and then grew to the size of a golf ball. This was the worst pain I have ever had and I have had many injuries due to football, hockey, rock climbing, and several other stupid things young people do.

Anyway, the infection stayed above the muscle and spread over the left side of my chest in less than two days. My daughter drove me to Dewitt and I actually thought I would not make it there alive.

I have a small indentation in my armpit where the doctors opened the wound after two days of heavy antibiotics. I was truly blessed.

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